Enter if you can bear it – the extraordinary private world of Frank, just sixteen, and unconventional, to say the least.

‘Two years after I killed Blyth, I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different reasons and more fundamental reasons than I’d disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did my young cousin Esmeralda, more or less on a whim. That’s my score to date. Three. I haven’t killed anybody for years, and don’t intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through.’

More About the Author

Iain Banks came to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984. He gained enormous popular and critical acclaim for both his mainstream and his science fiction novels. Iain Banks died in June 2013.

Product Description

Review

At last, a reader who does it justice . . . Peter Kenny is the one reader (I've heard five) who brings out Banks's glorious sardonic wit. Good things are worth waiting for (Sue Arnold, GUARDIAN)

A Gothic horror story of quite exceptional quality...macabre, bizarre and...quite impossible to put down (FINANCIAL TIMES)

A mighty imagination has arrived on the scene (MAIL on Sunday)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description

Iain Banks' momentous first novel, published in 1984.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Having read some of Banks' SF, and then started reading his fiction as well, I still shied away a little from reading "The Wasp Factory". It says much that the bad reviews as well as the good are included on the sleeve, and while it may sometimes not seem as extreme as you might have been lead to believe that's more through the changes to our society and what is now considered acceptable in a work of fiction.The story focuses on Frank, a 16 year old living with his father on a small Scottish island, part of possibly the ultimate dysfunctional family - all of whom seem to be to varying degrees insane. As Frank's horrific history is revealed, there's the prospect of an even more horrific future as his brother - lately escaped from a secure hospital - makes his way back for a visit....Much of what you may have heard about this book is true. There are horrors upon horrors, it goes all out to shock at some points, and is definately not for the squeamish. The fact that it doesn't descend to being yet another trashy horror shocker is entirely due to the quality of the writing and Banks' unique way of hooking his readers so that one simply has to carry on and find out exactly what it is that he has planted the seeds of. There is much (very) dark humour in some of Frank's descriptions of the events he has participated in, and throughout there's the blackly comic undercurrent of Frank's assumption that he is in fact the only sane one in his family - despite all the evidence to the contrary.Much is said about "the twist" and the brilliance of it, but I found it not nearly as startling as some others seem to have, and in fact it ends in an almost tame way - albeit, as with many a good yarn, with an open-endedness that allows you to think about what may follow.Read more ›

It's a horror story but doesn't rely just on the blood and guts to shock. There's a heavy psychological aspect to this book. What amazed me is that it's Banks' first, and shows the difference between a developing skill and sheer writing ability that makes the rest of us puke with jealousy.

Writing in the first person like we're all told never to do, Banks creates this remote world where the central character, clearly rather unhinged, spends his insular life committing brutalities towards animals. It seems important, and the only thing that isn't met with disdain and suspicion.

His disjointed life in remote Scotland has centred around this and three successful, pointless murders he's acheived.

Banks creats the character excellently and builds their world and their mindset in clear demonstration. Personally I equate deliberate cruelty to animals with perversion, but identified well with Frank despite his actions. Banks makes it a page turner, he brings every expression and event to life, and it's a thoroughly enjoyable tale.

A massive twist at the end, I didn't see it coming, some readers do. The sickness runs right through this book. It seems to me the product of a sick and depraved mind, who also happens to be a genius.

The Wasp Factory was originally published in 1984 and was the first novel by Ian Banks.

Told in the first person by key character 16 year old Frank Cauldhame, a thoroughly disturbed and sick young man, Frank has spent his life on a small island isolated from most of the rest of the world.

'The Wasp Factory' is Frank's account of his childhood and an insight into a series of weird and wonderful torture/murder rituals he invents as a way of predicting the future of the island and the weaponry he makes to keep it protected.

Some of the torture/murder scenes are visceral and completely over the top. They stand out from the rest of the narrative like jagged glass. They're shocking and that's the point but; I found the animal brutality incredibly hard to read and stay with. Made me cringe.

On the other hand what I enjoyed about the novel was the concept of a crazy boy living in glorious isolation and making 'magic' with an old clock face. Reeks of Gothic horror and those elements come into their own when Frank's older brother, Eric, escapes 'the asylum' and begins a journey back to the island.

There are some real gems and in places the atmosphere crackles with tension unfortunately; most of the book is flat and grey. Only the 'horror' makes the novel remarkable but it's also the horror that makes it almost unbearable.

I'm leaving 3* because the reading experience was so difficult. Would I recommend?. Only to those looking for the surreal who aren't easily offended.

...This is one of the best debut novels I have come across in some years now. It is obsessive, gory, cruel, repellent and gut churningly unsettling. Yet you will also find examples of brilliant dialogue, dark humour, surrealism, and writing of extraordinary clarity and attention to detail. The only thing this book lacks is purpose - the thought that these ideas were simply floating around the authors mind is a worrying one. This book will no doubt encompass some of your worst nightmares and lay them out clearly for you on the page. I strongly advise people with delicate stomachs and people who are easily offended to avoid perusing the pages of this book. You cannot love this book due to the violence and gore it contains. But you will enjoy it, you will be repulsed in parts, you will want to read more, and you will develop an immediate respect for the author. A courageous smack on the nose for literature as we knew it.